Category: Tags & Memes

Anyway – I came across this Goodreads tag over at Emma’s blog @emmareadstoomuch and thought it looked fun so I decided to do it! I joined Goodreads back in 2011, was kind of active for a while, and then academia took over, causing me to abandon reading – and the site – for ages. I think I only started properly updating my account again last year. For me, Goodreads is mostly a place where I can keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to read. I’m not active in the sense that I join in on discussions or post reviews, I just lurk and like and add, but I often check my shelves and I also like to keep up with what others are reading.

The lovely Ally @the.imperfect.library tagged me over at Instagram for the #midyearbookfreakouttag, and I also saw that Bill @ Kenyanlibrary made an awesome summary with this tag last month! I liked the questions and thought it made a really nice little summary of my reads so far, so I figured I’d make a post on the blog too. I’m not tagging anyone on here right now, but if you see this and want to do it then please feel free!

Thanks so much Rachel for tagging me! I tend to be really slow at getting around to doing these tags though (I have the same tendency with Instagram tags too haha). But these are always fun so I really appreciate it! Thanks!

Question 1: E-books or Physical Books?

I always prefer physical books, but e-books are obviously really convenient for Netgalley and for most of the review copies I receive. I don’t actually own a Kindle yet though (planning on getting one soon) so as of now I read e-books on my phone and let’s be real: it’s a pain.

It’s been quite a while (more than a month) since the lovely Rachel @ pace, amore, libri nominated me for this award – thanks so much! It’s about time I actually start using this blog and post something other than reviews for once (Rachel – you have a lot of fun tag posts, I might come back and steal some of them!). Do check out Rachel’s excellent blog and follow her if you aren’t already!

The Rules:

Display the award on your blog.
Thank the blogger that nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself.
Nominate 10 bloggers for the award and provide links to their blog.

7 Facts:

1. I’m a decent volleyball player, though I’ve never actually properly been part of a team. I considered joining the volleyball club in university but found I didn’t have much time next to my studies to regularly join in on all the games and tournaments, so I cheated and just went to the open practices lol. I have a terrible overhand serve but I’m good in defense (also I’m 5’5” (165 cm), which isn’t very tall for a volleyball player, so I like being at the back).

2. I’m half Norwegian, half Filipina (Filipina Mom and Norwegian Dad). I’ve lived in Norway all my life and about 95% of my family is in the Philippines. My family on my Dad’s side is super small and I’m also an only child, so I’m kind of used to being on my own and having few people around me. I don’t mind that at all by the way 😉

3. For my master’s thesis I studied the olfactory system in moths. Yep – moths. Basically I studied moth brains in vivo (very tiny brains, barely a pinhead) and mapped specific neurons by color staining them through electrical impulses. It was very fun work but pretty much a niche area of research. Still, I appreciate everything I can gain knowledge from and a lot of research areas overlapped too (biology, physics, neuroscience, etc.). Plus, I gained really steady hands!

4. On the very top of my “places to visit before I die” is without a doubt Japan! I feel like what I’m truly missing now is to learn the language (on at least a basic level) and experience the country. I love that the culture is so different and I haven’t been anywhere in East Asia before either, so this definitely must happen one day!

5. If I hadn’t been allergic to horses I’d probably be a horse owner for several years by now. I used to be absolutely crazy about horses when I was younger, and indirectly they also made me a book lover. I was in a bi-monthly horse themed book club (the Penny Club) in my tweens where you got two-three books plus a bunch of other goodies in each package. I have a whole stack of Joanna Campbell books in the attic and my favorite from her Thoroughbred-series is without a doubt “Ashleigh’s Diary”. That was the first book ever that completely broke my heart and made me cry. I tend to prefer sad books over funny books and I totally blame “Ashleigh’s Diary”.

6. I went through many various and obsessive collecting phases as a kid. I used to collect rocks (why…?), napkins (of course unused lol), keychains (I have such a massive amount of keychains that I don’t even want to use any of them), the 101 Dalmatians figurines and other Disney stuff from the McDonald’s Happy Meal, and Kinderegg figurines (Kindereggs were – and are – the best!!!). Now I collect books of course.

7. My middle name is Charlen but I only use Ann online, mostly because this isn’t a usual Norwegian name combination and, well, I’m kind of paranoid in our easy search days. However, my family only uses Charlen and my irl friends use both names (probably because I always introduce myself with both names lol). Rumor has it that my Dad wanted to name me Nina Charlen but my Mom didn’t like the combination. Charlen was also supposed to be Charlene but, in a typical Norwegian pronunciation, people didn’t seem to get that the last ‘e’ was supposed to stay silent and my parents didn’t want to subject me to a life of name mispronunciation. It happened anyway though; I don’t know how many teachers I’ve had to correct because they pronounced the ‘Ch’ as a ‘K’…